By Faith Zochowski
As the trees go bare and the fall colors begin to fade, one thing surely sets in among most college students: seasonal depression. It gets harder and harder to get up on the chilly mornings or go to those late classes when it gets darker earlier and earlier. If you are searching for a sad read that matches your mood, you’ve come to the right place. Check out the novel Five Feet Apart.
After living through the pandemic of 2020, most of us know what it feels like to have to stay 6 feet away from someone at all times. For Stella and Will, this is a constant reality.
Both of the teens deal with cystic fibrosis, and the chapters switch off between Will and Stella so we can see each of their perspectives while dealing with the disease. Stella sees the hospital as a second home and makes the best of her situation by staying organized and on top of her medication. She also makes a vlog everyday of what her day looks like as a teenager with cystic fibrosis. Will, on the other hand, is not so content with his illness. He skips medications and does everything in his power to live the life of a normal teenager. He is also about to start a new trial treatment but has no hope in it actually working.
Stella is aggravated by his stubbornness and arrogance towards his illness. Even so, the two become very close and figure out they have a lot more in common than they thought they did. Barb, the two’s favorite nurse, warns Stella about the dangers of catching B. cepacia from Will, which is a deadly lung disease that could take Stella off the lung transplant list. Stella decides to make a deal with Will; she will pose for him to draw her if he lets her help him with his treatments. This brings the two even closer, but never closer than the required 6 feet of distance.
Tragedy strikes one night when Will and Stella escape the hospital to go for a walk. Stella ignores her phone calls, which are telling her that there is a lung waiting for her at the hospital. The two walk onto a frozen pond and Stella falls through the ice. They rush her back to the hospital, hoping to make it in time.
I will not disclose any more spoilers, but I will confirm that this book is a tearjerker. It is heartbreaking to see these teenagers not only have to live with a chronic disease, but also be told who they cannot love. Authors Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis do a fantastic job of creating a romantic novel with a heartbreaking twist.
After reading the book, be sure to watch the movie adaptation on Netflix starring Cole Sprouse as Will and Haley Lu Richardson as Stella.
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